


Quietus

by Rabentochter



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Emotional Hurt, Feels, Gen, I blinked and suddenly the story was over, Loss, Sad Ending, as it so happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25004605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabentochter/pseuds/Rabentochter
Summary: The workshop fell silent the moment Tony realised that DUM-E had stopped making noises.
Relationships: Dummy (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 27
Kudos: 123





	Quietus

After his parents – his mom – had died, shortly after Jarvis – Tony had thought he would be safe from heartbreak in the future. There was – barely anyone he trusted, _loved_ , enough to give them all of himself, to adore them. There’d been Obadiah, of course. Tony’s heart still ached when he thought about the man, the one who’d stepped up as his most trusted person when Jarvis had been no longer. The sting of betrayal had been almost as big as the abyss of pain had been when realisation had settled in that Obadiah was no more.

Now, in his workshop, Tony felt as if someone was tearing his heart open all over again. A dulled screwdriver, taken and set against his heart, inching the point slowly into his skin, breaking it. Until blood was flowing, muscles were torn apart under the slow pressure, relentlessly thrusting forward.

DUM-E was silent. The claw lowered, no beep, no whirring.

No sign of life.

His metallic shell felt too cold against Tony’s hand, the warm yellow light mockingly warm as he tried to open his bot. He had to see his heart, had to try to make him play frisbee again before he would accept the bitter taste of defeat. Before Tony had done everything that could be done, he would not rest, would not – would not _accept_ that his friend was gone.

Another one who left him without a warning.

YOU was silent, only gave Tony tool after tool. Grieving not yet, but he knew something wasn’t right with his brother. Unspeakable fear gripped Tony for his other bot – not, that he’d lose him as well, his kids _gone_. Their spark, lost, without any trouble. 

When Tony had put so much effort into creating them. He still could name each mark on DUM-E’s shell, tell where it came from. The dent on the right from where YOU had rammed his claw into it when he’d asked for attention, needy as he was. It had been the only time, as Tony made sure that his kids learnt not to be too rough with each other.

Each dent their bore was one too many, one sign more he was failing – had to do better, had to keep all eyes on them until they knew better.

Tony’d been sitting on his latest car, plans for improvements running through his head in terrifyingly quick speed how it could become better; not that the car company or insurance would ever learn about that. But he’d been absorbed too much into his task that he hadn’t heard DUM-E. Which had been the point because DUM-E, silent?

That wasn’t normal, not his bot who loved to whir. Who asked for pets and attention like Tony on his worst days.

 _Only silence_.

And for a moment Tony had entertained the thought that his workshop felt like a graveyard. The silence sat heavy and uncomfortable on his shoulders, the air clean but dead. Nothing seemed to work anymore. The music had faded out as they all became aware that something was _wrong_.

Tony tore the panel off. His sight was more than blurred but he could not let that hinder him yet. Angrily he blinked the tears away, his sight getting better. His hands inside of DUM-E.

Silent DUM-E who used to hate it when Tony worked around inside of him.

Who used to chirp like an angry bird whose fish got stolen straight out of its beak. High, shrill, not _bearable_. And yet, what wouldn’t Tony give right now to have his bot come back to life. Loudly, so that no one would miss it.

His fingers worked hastily, shaking because of fright that choked him. He didn’t get enough air. Black dots were starting to appear in front of him, obscuring his vision but –

He could not let get that in his way, he had to –

Everything inside of DUM-E, everything that made him into DUM-E felt cold. Lifeless. The cables sticky for no reason, as if something had eaten his bot. Drained him of his juice until nothing remained anymore, only _this corpse._

The realisation came to Tony as a shock.

His hands fell slack against his sides, his tools strewn around him glinting hard in the warm light. YOU whirred softly. If Tony had to name it, he’d call it a whine. But grief was crashing him, burying him like an avalanche, tore everything with it until nothing remained but a deserted wasteland.

It was how Tony felt.

Hollow.

Hopeless.

Mechanics was his life. Ever since his feet had touched the ground, he’d been drawn to machines, his quiet friends who gave him stability when the rest of the world however big or small had seemed to conspire against him. When rage reigned in his home, when all he smelled was scotch, when all he saw was the golden liquid sloshing in its tumbler like honey. Looking so sweet when all it did was to incite horror, anger. Nothing less than hell on Earth – because if there was a place like this, then Tony had lived it, had survived it, only to arrive in a Void.

He stroked the claw, the touch as tender as were his words tempting, luring –

He’d never be a necromancer but that did not mean he had realised that yet, that his brain had caught up to that fact yet, only on the edge of his consciousness he was aware of it, shoved it away the next second. Kept talking, the floor all but cold and it started to seep through his jeans.

YOU was softly whining, and Tony was sure if he _understood_ his bot then he would be asking for DUM-E to wake up. That he wouldn’t throw the frisbee as far away anymore, that he’d stop asking him to hold his mug of coffee, that the bolts would all be put into the box where they belonged, no longer everywhere at the same time. So that he could roll freely around, no obstacles anywhere and –

Perhaps that was not what YOU thought, more Tony.

“Just, _please, Dummy–“_

He’d never foreseen the moment one of his kids would stop working. Would shut down entirely, not to be awoken again. Because he knew that his kid had charged, just a few hours ago in the corner together with YOU.

The stickiness from the cables was still on Tony’s hands. It looked in the light like slime, dark green and all the more abhorrent.

“Anthony?”

He could not speak, could not divert his attention as Loki arrived.

Because silence spoke volumes if one bothered to listen.

**Author's Note:**

> You know, I actually had a plan how to solve this and get DUM-E back, because that's what Loki is here for but you know how it is with life: it loves to be a shit ass.
> 
> Anyway, this is me saying that today's been one of those days™️ again 🙌 Hope y'all take care of yourself and stay safe, ye?


End file.
